Week 2 presents another brutal matchup for the Cleveland Browns, who will look to avoid an 0-2 start when they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with quarterback Baker Mayfield looking to stick it to his former team for the first time since being traded years ago. In this week leading up to the game, Mayfield has reflected positively upon his time in Cleveland and doesn’t sound bitter or like he is holding any grudges, but the competitor in him has to be ready to take down his old squad and potentially end Deshaun Watson’s career in the process.
One more bad start could be Watson’s last not only in Cleveland, but in the NFL entirely. An 0-2 Browns team heading back home to face the Cleveland fans with Watson under center could turn away some fans for good. This is not the timeline anyone envisioned when the Browns chose Watson over Mayfield in early 2022, and though it would be nice to start turning this ship around, with each loss it becomes clearer what the ultimate goal for this team might be in 2026.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated echoed a common sentiment about this Browns team during his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Friday. He believes this is still a full rebuild and this season is specifically about player development.
“I would say they still do believe that Deshaun’s the best option for the team. A lot of this year is about talent development for them. They made the conscious decision a year and a half ago, ‘we’ve got to get younger,’ which precipitated the Travis Hunter trade. To their credit, they put together a really nice rookie class last year. They think they’ve done it again. You’ve got a really nice young core there. How can we bring the talent along to a point where everyone’s got the arrow pointing up going into 2027? I just think a huge piece of the decision making now is what quarterback is going to be the best for the other ten guys in the huddle to develop. If you’ve got a young quarterback who’s developing himself, it can hamstring that a little bit,” said Breer.
A lot of analysts and fans have accepted that the Browns are simply focused on 2027, which would make sense given the fact that they’ll have two first-round picks in a loaded quarterback class. It’s possible they truly are operating as Breer suggests they are, which would mean they have likely seen enough of Shedeur Sanders already and perhaps believe there’s a world where somebody trades for Watson if he shows some flashes, or if he gets hurt again, they can cash out on his insurance policy.
An argument can be made that he is the better option for the young weapons on this offense than Sanders. As soon as that stops being the case, Monken has to pull the plug, because the future is the top priority even if the Browns do win some games this year.
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it will get easier to accept if the losses start piling up. Cleveland’s schedule does ease up quite a bit after this week, so hopefully Watson can keep meshing with his new offense. He is still a massive sunk cost at this point, but it would be nice to see him recoup some value on his way out of town by helping the new receivers and other young talents take the next step ahead of 2027.
NEXT: Reporter Notices Something Unusual About Browns-Bucs Matchup
